Love Is Hell

“Lorraine, it’s your mother. Where the hell are you? Honestly, this is not the right way to gain attention. I know you ran away, I don’t know where, but when we find you young lady, there are going to be consequences. Grow up and come back.”

I sighed as the message ended and I pressed delete. Real nice mother. The first time you try to make any contact at all you don’t say ‘I’m worried about you’, but ‘grow up’. At least dad made an effort to attempt to be worried.

Once I went through all my messages I turned my phone off and threw it at the foot of my bunk. I rolled onto my back and folded my hands behind my head, my left elbow touching the side of the bunk.

Deciding to take a nap, I tried to reach my blanket that was rolled up into a messy ball at the foot of my bunk. But, seeing as the bunks were small and life liked to be difficult, I couldn’t reach it. Trying to be skillful, I hooked the blanket onto my foot and tried to move it close enough to reach with my hands. By doing this, I had to slip my foot out of the bunk curtain and try to stretch towards my hand.

Of course, the blanket fell.

I groaned in frustration and propped myself up on my elbow and pulled back the bunk curtain.

“Shit!” I yelped in surprise. There stood Pat with a creepy clown mask.

“Miss Andrews cursed? Call the tabloids!” Pat exclaimed, his voice muffled by the mask.

I rolled my eyes, “Where and why did you get that mask?” I asked eyeing it indecisively. It was freaking scary and the fact that I was already scared of clowns did not make it any less frightening.

“Leon got it for me at Wal-Mart and because I wanted it...” he stated like it was the most obvious thing ever. Like it was common for people to want a scary clown mask.

I shook my head, why was Leon encouraging this kind of behavior.

“See, ready,” Pat continued, “Why so serious?” he asked in a creepy voice.

I furrowed my eyebrows, “Who are you even supposed to be?”

Pat gasped and whipped off the mask. He held it up, looked at it, and then looked back at me.

“Are you serious? For real, you don’t know who The Joker is?”

I shook my head no. I’m glad I didn’t know who this Joker character was. He’s pretty scary.

“Holy crap!” he exclaimed, “We have to watch The Dark Night!”

I just stared at him, but nodded anyways, not entirely sure what he was talking about.

“Anyways,” he said, “the whole reason I came back here was to let you know that we’re to the zoo!” He jumped around excitedly and then ran back towards the front of the bus.

Not sure if he was for real or not, I grabbed some change of clothes from my duffel bag and walked out towards the front of the bus.

John, Jared and Pat were sitting up front eating. They all looked up when I walked in and waved.

“Good morning!” John mumbled with his mouth full of cereal.

I waved, “Are we really going to the zoo?” I asked.

He nodded, “Yeah, we arrived in Portland ahead of schedule, so why not.” He shrugged.

I nodded and then made my way into the bathroom to change. I quickly pulled on my romper and brushed my wavy hair so it looked a bit decent. I haven’t been able to shower since I left home so my hair was a mess.

I then went through my bag searching for makeup. While I was searching my fingers touched something cold and sharp. Curious, I pulled out the object. When I pulled it out I realized it was my key necklace that I thought I lost a long time ago. I smiled as I admired it and quickly put it on so I wouldn’t lose it again. As I held the key in my hand so many memories came flooding back. I couldn’t help but get a little teary eyed thinking about how everything used to be so simple. I was brought back to reality as a loud bang hit the bathroom door.

“Hurry up, I have to pee!” someone shouted on the other side of the door.

I sighed as I quickly put on my makeup and put on three Tiffany rings that I found in my bag as well. They were a gift from my parents for my birthday. They weren’t as special as my key necklace, but I put them on anyways so I wouldn’t lose them because they were expensive.

I quickly gathered my pajamas and unlocked the bathroom door.

“Finally,” Garrett mumbled as I walked out. He quickly brushed past me and into the bathroom without another word.

I looked over at John confused. He shrugged, “He’s in a bad mood because he didn’t get much sleep. You’ll soon realize he’s really moody.” He explained.

Pat, who was sitting next to him watching TV nodded, “It’s like he’s permanently on some sort of man period or something.”

I chuckled and went back towards my bunk to put my clothes away. I stuffed everything back into my duffel bags and then stuffed the duffel bags into the small closet where we kept some suitcases. As I was closing the door, the bus came to a stop.

I walked back towards the front of the bus where now all the guys were waiting. Pat was eagerly waiting by the door while the rest of the guys were sitting down.

I decided to join Pat by the door. When I reached him he was excitedly bouncing around, waiting for a signal that it was ok to get off the bus. I laughed, “Someone’s excited.”

He nodded, “I love zoos! But I haven’t been to one in a while so this is exciting!” I laughed and nodded, “Me too… I can’t even remember the last time I’ve been to a zoo.”

He looked at me and shook his head, “Please tell me you at least have been to one.”

I rolled my eyes, “No, I’ve been to one, but just when I was a baby so I can’t remember anything.” I explained.

He smiled and grabbed my hand, “Ok then, you and I can hang out then because the rest of the guys won’t be as fun and exciting as me!”

I laughed and agreed.

“Ok Pat, we can get off now.” Tim said as he stood up from the couch along with the rest of the guys.

All of a sudden, I was flying out the door and sprinting, trying to keep up with Pat who had a death grip on my hand and was running towards the Oregon zoo entrance.

&&

“Pat come on, stop taunting the monkeys, I want ice cream!” I laughed as I dragged him away from the monkey exhibit.

“Oh ice cream!” he exclaimed as we made our way over to the food court. The rest of the guys were already there eating when we came over to sit with our ice cream cones.

“Having fun you two?” Kennedy asked as I sat down next to him at the table.

I nodded, “It’s been so long since I’ve been to a zoo.”

After we finished our food we made our way through the zoo, Pat and I eagerly walking ahead of the rest of the group. We walked through the different exhibits stopping at each animal and trying to get their attention.

“Pat, look, zebras!” I exclaimed as I pulled him towards the African exhibit. We went over to railing and watched the zebras roaming around in their enclosure along with the other little kids that were just as excited as us.

I looked down at the little boy next to me and gasped. He was wearing a black hat with ears attached to it. It was actually the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

“Where did he get that hat?” I whispered to Pat. He shrugged and looked back at the zebras. The little blonde boy started to walk away with his parents, so I grabbed Pat and followed them.

“Where are they going?” Garrett groaned behind us as we started walking in the wrong direction.

We followed the little boy and his parents all the way back towards the entrance of the zoo. As they were about to go into the food court and I was about to follow them, someone grabbed my arm and pulled me back.

He grabbed me and turned me around. He then pulled a tan beanie with cat ears out of an Oregon Zoo gift shop bag and placed it on my head.

“There, so you don’t steal the little boy’s.” Kennedy smiled as he fixed the hat on my head.

I laughed and hugged him, “Thanks Kennedy! I can pay you back.”

He shook his head, “Don’t worry about it, it’s my treat.” He said smiling.

“Are you guys ready to go? It’s already two; we should probably make our way to the venue.” Tim said as he checked his watch.

We all agreed to head back and we made our way out of the zoo towards the bus.

Once we were all on the bus and accounted for we were on our way towards the venue.

Kennedy, Pat, Garrett and I were sitting in the back lounge of the bus watching TV. Pat, Kennedy and I were laughing and talking about the zoo and how Pat and I were making faces at the monkeys. Suddenly, Garrett groaned and stood up.

“It’s like you’re a bunch of children! God, it’s so annoying!” he complained before storming off towards the bunks.

We were silent as we watched him climb into his bunk and close the curtain.

Kennedy sighed, “Don’t pay him any attention. He can get pretty moody sometimes.”

Pat nodded, “Like I said, permanent man period. Don’t take it personally.”

But I couldn’t help but take it personally. Garrett was fine towards me at first, but now it seemed like he didn’t even want me around. He was acting like he did when we first met, like he didn’t want anything to do with me. I sighed as I took one last glance at his bunk before quietly listening to Pat and Kennedy laugh and joke with each other.